Amolops

Amolops (commonly known as cascade frogs or sucker frogs) is a genus of true frogs (family Ranidae) native mainly to eastern and south-eastern Asia. These frogs are closely related to such genera as Huia, Meristogenys, Odorrana, Pelophylax and Rana, but still form a distinct lineage among the core radiation of true frogs. They are commonly known as "torrent frogs" after their favorite habitat - small rapid-flowing mountain and hill streams - but this name is used for many similar-looking frogs regardless of whether they are loosely related.
Several species are highly convergent with other Ranidae "torrent frogs". A. archotaphus and its relatives for example very much resemble Odorrana livida. In another incidence of convergent evolution yielding adaptation to habitat, the tadpoles of Amolops, Huia, Meristogenys as well as Rana sauteri have a raised and usually well-developed sucker on their belly. This is useful in keeping in place in rocky torrents, where these frogs grow up. But as Odorrana and Staurois from comparable habitat prove, this sucker is by no means a necessity and other means of adaptation to torrent habitat exist.
Species
The delimitation of this genus has proven complicated, with many species believed to belong elsewhere. Due to the degree of convergent evolution, DNA sequence studies are very helpful in assigning species to the genera, though the possibility of past hybridization cannot be discounted in Ranidae.
New species are described on a regular basis. At least one undescribed species is known to exist, a very distinct form from Phetchaburi in Thailand that is possibly closer to A. marmoratus than to most others.
Amolops afghanus (Günther, 1858)
Amolops akhaorum Stuart, Bain, Phimmachak, and Spence, 2010
Amolops albispinus Sung, Hu, Wang, Liu, and Wang, 2016
Amolops aniqiaoensis Dong, Rao, and Lü, 2005
Amolops archotaphus (Inger and Chan-ard, 1997)
Amolops assamensis Sengupta et al., 2008
Amolops australis Chan, Abraham, Grismer, and Grismer, 2018
Amolops bellulus Liu, Yang, Ferraris, and Matsui, 2000
Amolops caelumnoctis Rao and Wilkinson, 2007
Amolops chakrataensis Ray, 1992
Amolops chayuensis Sun, Luo, Sun, and Zhang, 2013
Amolops chunganensis (Pope, 1929)
Amolops compotrix (Bain, Stuart, and Orlov, 2006)
Amolops cremnobatus Inger and Kottelat, 1998
Amolops cucae (Bain, Stuart, and Orlov, 2006)
Amolops daiyunensis (Liu & Hu, 1975)
Amolops daorum (Bain, Lathrop, Murphy, Orlov, and Ho, 2003)
Amolops formosus (Günther, 1876)
Amolops gerbillus (Annandale, 1912)
Amolops gerutu Chan, Abraham, Grismer, and Grismer, 2018
Amolops granulosus (Liu and Hu, 1961)
Amolops hainanensis (Boulenger, 1900)
Amolops himalayanus (Boulenger, 1888)
Amolops hongkongensis (Pope and Romer, 1951) – Hong Kong Cascade Frog
Amolops indoburmanensis Dever, Fuiten, Konu, and Wilkinson, 2012
Amolops iriodes (Bain and Nguyen, 2004)
Amolops jaunsari Ray, 1992
Amolops jinjiangensis Su, Yang, and Li, 1986
Amolops kaulbacki (Smith, 1940)
Amolops kohimaensis Biju, Mahony, and Kamei, 2010
Amolops larutensis (Boulenger, 1899)
Amolops lifanensis (Liu, 1945)
Amolops loloensis (Liu, 1950)
Amolops longimanus (Andersson, 1939)
Amolops mantzorum (David, 1872)
Amolops marmoratus (Blyth, 1855)
Amolops medogensis Li and Rao, 2005
Amolops mengdingensis Yu, Wu, and Yang, 2019
Amolops mengyangensis Wu and Tian, 1995
Amolops minutus Orlov and Ho, 2007
Amolops monticola (Anderson, 1871)
Amolops nidorbellus Biju, Mahony, and Kamei, 2010
Amolops nyingchiensis Jiang, Wang, Xie, Jiang, and Che, 2016
Amolops ottorum Pham, Sung, Pham, Le, Ziegler, and Nguyen, 2019
Amolops pallasitatus Qi, Zhou, Lyu, Lu, and Li, 2019
Amolops panhai Matsui & Nabhitabhata, 2006
Amolops ricketti (Boulenger, 1899)
Amolops shuichengicus Lyu and Wang, 2019
Amolops sinensis Lyu, Wang, and Wang, 2019
Amolops spinapectoralis Inger, Orlov, and Darevsky, 1999
Amolops splendissimus Orlov and Ho, 2007
Amolops torrentis (Smith, 1923)
Amolops tuberodepressus Liu and Yang, 2000
Amolops viridimaculatus (Jiang, 1983)
Amolops vitreus (Bain, Stuart, and Orlov, 2006)
Amolops wenshanensis Yuan, Jin, Li, Stuart, and Wu, 2018
Amolops wuyiensis (Liu and Hu, 1975)
Amolops xinduqiao Fei, Ye, Wang, and Jiang, 2017
Amolops yatseni Lyu, Wang, and Wang, 2019
Amolops yunkaiensis Lyu, Wang, Liu, Zeng, and Wang, 2018
Footnotes
References
(2007): Paraphyly of Chinese Amolops (Anura, Ranidae) and phylogenetic position of the rare Chinese frog, Amolops tormotus. Zootaxa 1531: 49–55. PDF abstract and first page text
(2008): The phylogenetic problem of Huia (Amphibia: Ranidae). Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 46(1): 49–60. (HTMl abstract)
Amphibian genera
Frogs of Asia
Taxa named by Edward Drinker Cope